Michigan football vs. Purdue: Game preview

Tonight, the 2022 Big Ten Championship opponents, the Michigan Wolverines and the Purdue Boilermakers, will meet in the Big House for a rematch. After a bye week, Michigan football hopes to continue their dominant win streak while forcing Purdue to add to their losing streak.

Previewing Michigan football vs. Purdue

Michigan Offense

Michigan’s remarkable season has been centered around Heisman candidate JJ McCarthy, who has the highest completion percentage in the conference at 78.1%. Despite barely playing past the third quarter, McCarthy has 18 passing touchdowns and 1,799 passing yards. While this is expected to be another commanding win by the Wolverines, McCarthy will hopefully get the chance to increase both his statistics and Heisman chances.

Blake Corum has continued to be the leading running back for Michigan, rushing for 59 yards and one touchdown against Michigan State. While his partner Donovan Edwards only had 14 rushing yards against the Spartans, he also had three receptions for 23 yards. The last time Edwards faced the Boilermakers, however, he won the conference championship MVP award with 25 carries for 185 yards.

Receiver Roman Wilson had two receptions for 50 yards against Michigan State, while also scoring one touchdown. Wilson now has 27 receptions for 446 yards this season, already exceeding the total 25 receptions for 376 yards he had last year. Tight end AJ Barner scored his first touchdown of the season against the Spartans while also completing eight receptions for 99 yards. Colston Loveland had two touchdowns of his own, resulting in his first career game with more than one score.

Corum and Wilson are the only non-kickers in the Big Ten to exceed 50 points this season, with Corum scoring 78 points from 13 touchdowns and Wilson scoring 60 points from his 10 touchdowns. While McCarthy is at the forefront of the dominant offensive performance by Michigan so far this season, he has numerous playmakers surrounding him.

Michigan Defense

The Wolverines’ defense has only allowed 47 points this season compared to the 240 points allowed by Purdue’s defense. Michigan allows an average of 5.9 points per game, whereas no other team in the conference allows less than 10. While the offense continues to be a force to be reckoned with, the defense deserves a lot of hype too.

Junior Colson leads the defense with 45 tackles this season, 11 of which came against Michigan State. Will Johnson had a season-high five tackles against the Spartans, which will hopefully put him on an upward trend for the remainder of the season. Plenty of the Wolverines’ defensive players have had tremendous plays this season, allowing Michigan to have the most effective defense in the FBS.

Purdue Offense

Purdue football has had a rough start to the season, only winning two of their eight total games. This rocky start comes after the Boilermakers hired a new head coach in Ryan Walters and have a new starting quarterback in Hudson Card.

Hudson Card has had somewhat of a rough time adjusting to the Purdue offense, throwing for eight touchdowns and seven interceptions while also being sacked 18 times. That being said, he has thrown for 1,717 yards and has completed 59.4 percent of his passes.

The Boilermakers have some of their running backs splitting duties, mainly Devin Mockobee and Tyrone Tracy Jr. Mockobee has rushed for 520 yards and four touchdowns whereas Tracy has rushed for 325 yards with five touchdowns of his own. While JJ McCarthy has been a major part of the Wolverines’ run game, Card only has 48 rushing yards this season.

In terms of passing, Card’s favorite target this season has been Deion Burks, who has 29 receptions for 426 yards and five touchdowns. Other major receivers for Purdue have been TJ Sheffield and Abdur-Rahmaan Yaseen. Sheffield has 336 yards on 30 receptions, whereas Yaseen has 25 receptions for 329 yards.

Purdue Defense

Defensive back Dillon Thieneman has 74 tackles and three interceptions this season, both of which stats lead the team. Linebackers Kydran Jenkins and Nic Scourton lead the conference in tackles for loss– Jenkins with 12 tackles for -78 yards and Scourton with 12 tackles for -50 yards. 

Michigan football has some of their most difficult matchups of the regular season in the upcoming weeks, so they need to fine-tune any weaknesses against the Boilermakers. If the Wolverines are able to keep up the top-notch performances. they will be headed to Indianapolis for the third season in a row.

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